


The Soul of the Moment

by Yrindor



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angels, Grief/Mourning, Other, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29425287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: One thousand eyes, one thousand wings.  One shadow, one scythe.  Two angels.  One mission.
Relationships: Angel of Mercy/Angel of Death
Comments: 16
Kudos: 16
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	The Soul of the Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



The first premonitions of war come not in crashing thunder or great strife but in an unexpected meeting before the air currents swirling down the from the heavens. It takes no more than a passing glance and a nod to confirm they are leaving for the same destination, and then the slightest flick of an ethereal wrist to send their underlings off ahead to handle the uncomplicated tasks.

The Angel of Death and the Angel of Mercy wait for an empty airstream before they launch themselves from the heavens and glide toward the earth. Despite the air whipping around them, they travel side by side, their feathered wingtips brushing ever so lightly as the currents shift.

They reach the battlefield after the worst of the fighting has passed. Small pockets of conflict still spring up on the fringes, but that is not why they have been brought here. They are not here for the living, or for the dead, but for the dying who lie strewn across the muddied ground.

It is Mercy who catches their desperate eyes, and Mercy who gently cups their faces in their hands. It is Mercy who hears their words as they beg for death or plead for life, as they cry out in agony from their wounds or in anguish at the loved ones they have left behind. It is Mercy with their thousand eyes who catches them and holds them in their all-encompassing gaze.

It is in that moment that Death strikes, swift and silent as they sever the slender spring that binds body and soul.

It is Mercy with their thousand eyes who searches the battlefield for the next life in need of their attention. It is Mercy who holds them close and whose thousand wings shield mortal eyes from the dark shadow of Death. It is Death who lays their suffering to eternal rest, but Mercy who allows them to go in peace and without fear.

And when they have at last done all that they can do--when Judgement and Temperance descend from the heavens to stake their claim against the shades of Revenge and Retribution that rise from deep beneath the ground--it is Death who leads Mercy away from the bloody, muddy field.

It is Death who guides them with a gentle hand to the distant mountains perched on the edge of the world. It is Death's presence that causes the birds to fall silent and the badgers to retreat into their burrows until there is nothing but silence around them. And in that place that is neither heaven nor earth, neither here nor there, it is Death's shadowy wings that shelter Mercy and hold them close as a thousand eyes close and a thousand wings droop.

It is Death who makes a space for them to simply be, a space where no lost souls look to them and no great heavenly powers command them. It is Death who holds them there in the stillness and the silence until the distant echo of the celestial horn snaps a thousand eyes open and a thousand wings to attention.

It is Death and Mercy side by side who return to the heavens on the same air currents from whence they came. It is Death and Mercy together who report on the events of the day, the heavenly tongue spilling first from one, then from the other, and then back again--two streams that twine together into a single, living story.

And when the story is finished and their work is done, Mercy and Death part ways with the same, nearly imperceptible nod from which the tale began. They will find one another again when they are needed as they always do for they are but two parts of one whole, two aspects of the single, immortal soul.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Chocolate Box, Shadaras! I loved the idea of this prompt, and angels are always fun to explore.


End file.
